4. Fried Potatoes and Forgery

It’s early 1981 and the forger Konrad Kujau and the journalist Gerd Heidemann are about to come face to face. Everything’s in motion - Stern management and a small team of editorial staff are on board, sworn to secrecy from colleagues and the outside world.

In the next few months, millions of Deutschmarks will travel in suitcases in exchange for diaries, which are – so Kujau says – being smuggled across the iron curtain, from East to West Germany.

Despite Stern’s best efforts, by late 1982, rumours are circulating among memorabilia collectors that significant previously unseen Nazi documents have come to light. The Sunday Times gets a call.

Writer and broadcaster Andrew Hunter Murray uncovers last century’s biggest ever publishing scandal, a forgery which rocked the world and destroyed reputations.
It’s a tale of greed, obsession and mass delusion. It includes Hermann Göring’s yacht, Nazi-themed honeymoons, Idi Amin’s underpants, and more details almost too unbelievable for words.

Andrew interviews the people who were there as the diaries were announced to the world, and as the story fell apart - the archivist tasked with authenticating the diaries in Germany, the TV producer led around the homes of retired Nazis to film a promotional documentary for the scoop, and the Fleet Street editor given 24 hours to create a world-beating story based on fraudulent material.

In our own time of AI, fake news and disinformation, are there any lessons we can take from the greatest hoax of the last 50 years?

Gerd Heidemann tapes part of the Gerd Heidemann collection, Hoover Institute, copyright Stanford University.

Presenter: Andrew Hunter Murray
Producer: Ruth Abrahams
Story Editor: Andrew Dickson
Sound Design: Joel Cox
Mix Engineer: Nigel Appleton
Executive Producers: David Prest and Robert Nicholson
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke

A Whistledown production for BBC Sounds and Radio 4